REVIEW:
PUTTING THE 86 SIDEWAYS + VIDEO 22
July 2012| Images by: Nishaam Ebrahim |
Review by: RaceMasteR J.
Since
there was so much talk of the new Toyota 86, especially between
myself and some friends, I personally wanted to see what all
the fuss was about. I met up with a generous owner of one recently
to do a quick inspection and shoot of the car, but at the end
of the night, I never got to drive the car like Nadeem did in
his review, so we rescheduled
another appointment for me to put the car through its paces.
Sunday
morning came and I finally got to drive the car how I wanted
to… sideways! I mean, that’s what everyone’s
talking about? Isn’t it? It’s supposedly the new
Hachi Roku is it not? This car supposed to go sideways pretty
well, but nowhere locally have I found anyone mentioning anything
about that. I had to see for myself. Now I’m not going
to tell you about how good the driving position is, or how it
looks in the metal or even about its fuel economy. You can go
to your local dealership for that. I’ll give you my view
on how it drives… in a bit.
In
all honesty, this new model does stay true to the original 86’s
personality; it’s an “underpowered” drift
car. But in today’s time, why do you want to release an
underpowered car? Well, Toyota is marketing it as a “fun”
car, and by all means, you most certainly can and will have
a lot of fun driving it. But it all comes down to what your
definition of fun is? If you’re an Initial D fan, never
owned a rear wheeled drive car before and have the budget to
own this car but still drive it every day to work and back,
this car is for you. Why? Personally I feel it’s a good
tool for novice “wana be” drifters (like me). It
doesn’t have enough power to kill you, which is a good
thing. You will be able to throw the car into a corner, kick
the tail out and still be able to control it. End result –
a huge smile on your face! Guaranteed! You won’t be able
to do long continuous drifts, but a little “ass kicking”
action is all a novice needs. This car will be loads of fun
on a track day. Pushing it past its limit and then catching
it without crashing is great to build confidence.
What about
more powerful cars for the same price? You might be able to
pick up an e46 M3. It’s more powerful and we all know
it can drift. But it’s old and for someone who’s
a noob at tail sliding, an M3 would be somewhat intimidating.
Plus you don’t know how long the motor plan is going to
last or if it even has one still? So maintenance would be an
issue eventually. Putting it in a nutshell, if you are used
to drifting rear wheeled drive power plants, this car is not
for you.
So, how did it drive you ask? Well, I
had to ring its neck to get it to slide. I did have fun doing
it, but I had to work hard to get it. After playing around with
the Raceweb RX7, with almost double the power on low boost,
this session in the 86 became somewhat of a gym workout. It
might not look it, but I know I put more effort in. Which brings
me back to it being true to its “86 underpowered personality”.
Yes it’s very light, but it should have had just a little
more power. I would have gone Turbo with this. Because with
a turbo set up there’s plenty of room for improvement.
Yes turbos can be laggy, but a small turbo would spool before
you even asked it to. And turning up the boost is so simple
now days on stock motors, which offer you different power packages.
Look at the Golf 6 GTi. Minimal upgrades on that car and you
can run low 13’s. Pity it’s a front wheel drive.
So in conclusion, this base car is good,
but not great. It does have the potential to be great, but I
guess we have to see what the aftermarket industry has on offer
to us because the 86, in my opinion, has not earned its stripes…
yet!
Watch the on board video of me sliding
it around below...
